a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of computer assisted innovation. The invention provides a method which can automatically generate suggested innovation opportunities which may then be viewed or otherwise communicated to and analysed by a user.
b. Related Art
The way in which commercially valuable ideas are generated within organizations has remained largely untouched by the general trend towards improved efficiency through automation. Innovative thinking has traditionally been a very manual process, sometimes stimulated through the application of psychological techniques, such as brainstorming. These techniques bring limited improvement, as they are limited to the pre-existing knowledge of the individuals involved and frequently lack any formal structure.
Another approach to generate innovative ideas is the use of a problem analysis tools and methodologies, some of which are enabled by computer-based technologies that can be applied by a researcher or designer.
Problem analysis tools and methodologies can help a user identify a complex system and identify discrete problems which should be addressed. Here computer systems assist in the application of methods of problem analysis. These include root cause analysis, TRIZ (a Russian acronym for “TeoriyaResheniyaIzobretatelskikhZadatch”), value engineering, system functional analysis, and system benchmarking. TRIZ is a methodology, tool set, knowledge base, and model-based technology for generating innovative ideas and solutions for problem solving. An example of such a tool, called TechOptimizer™, is a computer system marketed by Invention Machine Corporation of Boston, Mass. The technology used in TechOptimizer™ to assist in problem analysis is partially described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,428 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,043.
A key deficiency with problem analysis tools is that while they aid in the identification of specific issues to be addressed, the user of such tools is required to possess a good knowledge about the problem being considered. In US20070112746, “System and Method for Problem Analysis,”, there is disclosed a method for providing user specific relevant information to assist in the modelling of problems, wherein the principle aspect of analysis is cause-effect relationships, and wherein a cause or effect statement is automatically reformulated as a natural language query. The query is submitted to a database, and the results of the query are returned, thereby greatly facilitating the process of identifying related cause-effect data.
An alternative approach is described by U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,282, “A process for problem solving using spontaneously self-replicating and self-improving entities”. This invention relates to evolutionary processes useful for problem solving by generating self-replicating and self-improving computer programs.
An approach which is specific to controllers is described by US2004030414, “Method and apparatus for automatic synthesis of controllers”. This invention relates to the field of automatic synthesis of complex structures; more particularly, the automatic synthesis of the topology and parameter values for controllers and control systems.
Yet a further approach to automated innovation has been investigated by Hewlett-Packard and others such as Pfizer. This is exemplified by the paper “Automated re-invention of six patented optical lens systems using genetic programming”, Proceedings 2005 Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation on pages 1953-1960 which describes how genetic programming was used in an invention machine to automatically synthesize complete designs for six optical lens systems that duplicated the functionality of previously patented lens systems. The automatic synthesis was done “from scratch”—that is, without starting from a pre-existing good design and without pre-specifying the number of lenses, the physical layout of the lenses, the numerical parameters of the lenses, or the non-numerical parameters of the lenses. One of the six genetically evolved lens systems infringed a previously issued patent; three contained many of the essential features of the patents, without infringing; and the others were non-infringing novel designs that duplicated (or improved upon) the performance specifications contained in the patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,191 describes an automated design process and apparatus for use in designing complex structures, such as circuits, to satisfy prespecified design goals, using genetic operations.
Natural Selection Inc., San Diego, has also used similar technologies based on Darwinian principles of natural evolution and filed patent application US2006036560, “Intelligently interactive profiling system and method”.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,685,118 describes a semantic method using an ontology to solve inventor problems. Different possible solutions are ranked based on their generality.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,370 describes a piece of software for semantically analysing documents and for creating new concepts and new ideas.
WO2005060684 suggests a semantic approach to Triz. The user needs to express a problem in terms of a natural language query that contains a contradiction and which is submitted to a semantically indexed database.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,663 describes another computer-implemented method for solving problems based on the Triz approach. The method starts from a model of the real-world to identify problems and suggest solutions.
US20080195604 describes an automated method for drafting an invention disclosure based on an initial invention concept. The invention involves semantically parsing an initial invention statement, performing an automated prior art search in patent databases to determine patentability issues, and generate an invention disclosure for filing.
US20010034629 describes a method for facilitating the conception of inventions; mainly based on cooperative work among participants, using guidelines etc.
WO07081519 describes another method for generating ideas and selling inventions.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,035 describes a method for evaluating innovations based on several factors, and discarding innovations which don't reach a predetermined threshold.
US20040078192 describes a method for automatically performing a semantic analysis of patents and patent claims, and analysing potential infringement.
However, it will be seen that current tools suffer from one or more of the following problems: they need a problem to be defined, require extensive user interaction and training, tend to produce small incremental improvements of low or zero commercial value, are not reactive to the introduction of new technologies and do not work in real-time. As a result users of these systems have to contend with a number of further problems which may include: staff must be trained to use certain methodologies and tools, patenting opportunities may be lost to competitors who identify the innovation opportunity more quickly or the potential invention generated by use of the tools is not novel or has of little or no value.
Moreover, many prior art systems deliver large number of possible solutions to a problem, with no easy way for the user to determine which of those possible solutions is the best one and in particular which solution will give the best patent opportunities.
Moreover, many prior art systems request a lot of human intervention and are not fully automated. When the prior art systems use computers or other processing means, they usually don't use them in an effective way, and request fast processors and/or lot of memory.
An aim of the present invention is thus to develop a new, computer based approach to generate innovation, using computers and semantic methods for detecting as early as possible innovation opportunities which could not be detected without computer.
By taking a new approach to the generation of innovation opportunities, the proposed invention overcomes a number of the problems of the prior art.
In particular, the present invention provides a more automated method of determining innovation opportunities, in which human intervention is reduced.
The present invention also provides a computer-enabled method of determining innovation opportunities, in which a more efficient use of computing resources is made.
The present invention also provides a computer-enabled method of determining innovation opportunities, with which invention opportunities can be identified which might be difficult to identify with a non-computer-enabled method, other than by chance.
The present invention also aims to use computer and software modules for automatically and efficiently detecting innovation opportunities, based on an automatically, continuously performed analysis of trend data for a plurality of terms, and detection of unexpected changes in the frequency of use of some terms or new terms.